Geneva - A UN-sponsored report on Monday denounced the World Health Organization's slow response to the Ebola outbreak and said the agency still did not have the capacity to tackle a similar crisis.
"It is still unclear to the panel why early warnings approximately from May through to July 2014 did not result in an effective and adequate response," an interim report by a six-member expert team said.
WHO only declared a global public health emergency on August 8 -- almost five months after the outbreak had taken hold in west Africa.
The epidemic has left more than 11,000 dead, mainly in the west African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, out of over 26,000 cases.
"There were serious gaps in the early months of the outbreak in terms of engaging with the local communities," the report said.
The panel, set up on March 9, is led by Barbara Stocking, who formerly headed Oxfam. It will present its final report in June.
The interim report comes a week ahead of the World Health Assembly in Geneva where more than 3,000 delegates and health ministers from 194 member states are expected.
The Ebola crisis and its handling is one of the top items on the agenda.
Stocking sidestepped questions on whether WHO staff, including its chief Margaret Chan, bore personal responsibility for the tardy response, or whether it was due to a mixture of missed signals and inefficiency on their part.
"The world failed," Stocking told a news conference.
AFP
